Private Universities – Is The Argument Valid?
by Suren Dias (surendias87.blogspot.com)
photo by flickr.com/photos/urbangarden
For some time there have been lots of buzz about starting of private degree offering institutes that offer degree courses similar to the ones offered by the government operated universities. University students are all against this and they have even resorted to protesting to stop these from happening.
Their argument is that they have worked really hard to get into universities and they have to work even harder for 4 years to get their degrees and people going to private institutes gets the same degree in two years for money.
Let us analyze this problem further.
What they are telling is true up to a certain extent; they do have to work hard to get the degree. But they do it for no cost. And in turn they get lots of free time to do protests against the government and the social systems and private degree offering institutes.
On the other hand to for private students, to get a four year degree in two years they have to do four years of work in two years, and they have to pay lots of money. Most of the students who do these private degrees are not belonging to the rich families but come from middle class families whose parents are just managing to get the money required to make sure their sons and daughters get the education they deserve.
The common conception is that when you pay money you get a degree easily. But this is not true. Students who pay money have to make sure that the money they pay is not for nothing and they have to work harder. I know this for a fact because I’m doing a degree at a private institute and believe me when I say it’s not easy.
The university students get many benefits for their hard work. They get good social exposure, lots of extracurricular activities you can see those by going to university students face book profile. And most importantly they get a huge campus ground and facilities that include sports and other activities.
They get all these for free.
And what does the private institute student get after paying a huge amount of money? A class room, a canteen, a library and lots of work that is too hard to finish up in the course do the day. Do we get vacations like university students? No.
And finally at the end you get a degree easily for private institute students as accused by university students. And after undergoing lots of hardship the university students also get a degree.
And after getting a degree you go to find a job. At job interviews nowadays employers are not looking for the amount of degrees you have or whether it’s a private or a government degree. They are looking for skills. And person with good skills and good industry knowledge naturally gets the job.
I think what needs to be done here is not to protest against private education institutes, but to do your work hard and get the maximum out of your opportunities. So my dear friends in universities please stop looking at others and do your work well and develop your skills and increase your chances in getting a good job instead of going under false pretenses about what others are doing. Thank you and your comments are welcome.
More details: surendias87.blogspot.com
Coulodnt agree more. Most of the students who protest like this are the same ones who do nothing, get up to all sorts of mischief and waste taxpayers money by their presence.
Encourage More and More Degree Awarding Universities. 12% of students qualified only have the comfort of University Education. 88% qualified have to do some other learnig
Sri Lanka need another 30,300 university seats immediately. State cannot do it. Let the private sector do it. 6,000 students a year leave the country for higher education to other countries inclusive of countries which are way below social status of Sri Lanka. Aprox USD 36 M is transferred out a year legally and illegally to other countries for higher education. If this money is kept back there will be more development in the country
This is a country that looks up and spits thus depriving others the opportunity by those who have the opportunity
If private univercities mushroom like International schools, All state univercity
lecturers will be sucked in to their fold, poor rural students wont have any
lecturers to them, & some state univercity buildings will be sold for a song.
thats where government expenditure comes in.when competition is provided by these private unis to state run unis there will be an automatic response by the state.the state will take steps required to increase the quality of education in state run unis.one such step will be to increase the wages of lecturers and bring them on par with those offered by private unis.so at the end of the day the poor,rural student will benefit by this move because he will have a higher quality tertiary education.
Well said !! Even i was selected to follow a degree in Uni of Colombo. But instead i decided to follow a degree at a private university in SL. I personally know many others who had done the same. And to add more, i found a job within one month after completing my final exam (long before my final results were released); so did my batch-mates. And in doing so I did beat 200 odd applicants from both government & private universities to get that job.
So what they have to realize is every person in SL has a right to obtain knowledge, education. State-managed universities alone cannot provide room for these public requirements. Thats why Open universities have been introduced. But still the demand for higher education cannot be met. That’s why we need private universities.
How many students go to countries like US,UK,Australia to follow degrees? How many students go to Russia, Bangladesh,China & India to do Medicine alone? All of these students have equally worked hard to get through their A/Ls. Some may have got excellent results, but due to district ratios they must have lost the chance to follow the degrees they had targeted for.
At the end of the day,i wish these protesters realize what a golden opportunity they have got, and make full use of it without just wasting time(protesting)& hard earned money of the tax-payers of this country.
Private education has been in existance in the country for quite long.Nursary,
English,Accountancy and Management are some of them.Many accountants
are private educated.It’s the degree issue that worries many.There’s no basis
for this worry other than trying to maintain a kind of monopoly in public sector
employment.Education should flood into the country from anywhere at any
cost and available to anybody from any institute.Private Universities are more
efficient and offer options and flexibility.Nobody should have the right to block
alternative avenues to education from cradle to grave yard.We are living in a
world where before too long,on-line education will overtake brick and mortar
tradition.Courses where you only need few hours of practicals and the rest
theories,are already available on-line, with few hours lab attendance.This
brings education to your doorstep at a fraction of the cost with guarantee of
quality by reputed institutes.
The youth in SL are cracy to oppose this! If we had private universities here, how many students can we save from leaving to overseas to study? All that money will be circulating in SL economy. We can even open up for South Asian students